Drop

NPC Summons

Notes

After you defeat the boss, a Lamp will appear which will allow you to warp to the Hunter's Dream.

Make sure to have a good number of Antidotes in this fight in case you are poisoned. Several can be found on a corpse behind the alter at the opposite end of the Beast's arena, and they can also be purchased in the Hunters Dream or found in a few areas leading up to the Beast's fight.

Attack Patterns

General Strategy

Father Gascoigne's armor is useful here, as it provides ample poison resistance. It can be purchased with insight at the fountain next to the door to the church in the Hunter's Church. However, any armor with a high defense can be used if you don't have enough insight to activate the fountain.

Parrying with your gun is absolutely essential to this fight. Bring at least 10 Quicksilver Bullets in case you miss. The more the merrier.

The Beast moves very quickly. Be aware of this and keep your distance, especially while using blood vials.

Parries

The Blood Starved Beast has three "stages" to the fight. It primarily uses frontal attacks. Its attacks can poison, and cause buildup for poison. It has a grab animation that it will insta-kill lower level players who try to close in but do not react fast enough to the grab.

During the first "stage", the BSB will mostly perform a charging attack which is dodged easily and has a long telegraphing animation. It is easy to avoid. Moving in close and provoking an attack is a good idea, as it is possible to parry this attack with your gun. Whenever it raises it's right arm to attack, parry it. This allow you to perform a visceral, which usually takes about a sixth to an eighth of its health.

After the BSB has about 2/3 of it's health remaining, it will release a shrill scream and begin using longer attack cycles with several more animations, and much longer range. Parrying it here requires better timing. If the BSB begins closing in and you are forced to face it directly forward, back step repeatedly to avoid getting hit. It's front attack animation during this stage is a multitude of hits and it can easily kill you. Its poison buildup is much higher here as well. The BSB will still charge you, and can even perform a grabbing attack. However, it can still be parried and visceral attacked, and mastering this will make the fight significantly easier.

After the BSB has 1/3 of it's health remaining, it will enter it's final "stage", with another shrill scream, and from this point on simply being within close proximity can poison you. The poison is relatively fast acting and can easily drain your health quickly enough to kill you, especially if you aren't paying attention to your health bar while dodging its attacks. One or two more parries and visceral attacks will win the fight.

Pillars

Another, longer tactic is to use to the pillars in the arena to "catch" the Beast so that it can more easily dodged and managed before counterattacking. If you haven't yet mastered parries, this strategy may be easier for you, but be aware that it is much more likely that you will get hit trying to lure it around, especially considering that it can often attack through the pillars. If you want to win easily, and you want the rest of the game to be much less difficult, practicing parries on the regular enemies in the area and getting used to using them will open up much more possibilities for you. This fight is meant for mastering the use of your gun, so using this strategy will put you at a disadvantage for later areas.

Low Level Strategy

Before taking on the Blood-Starved Beast I recommend that you explore Hemwick Charnel Lane first!

Recommended Weapon Level: +4 to +6

Recommended Armor: Black Church Set

Recommended Runes: Lake (+3%)

Recommended Items: Antidote / Fire Paper

This can be a tough fight. The BSB is super aggressive, and he gets even more so as he loses health. To top it off there's the poison and his insatiable appetite for Hunters. On a positive note, he can be stunned by a backstab or a well time shot to the face, although both are risky. This fight can be broken down into three (3) stages.

Stage 1: The BSB moves slowly and lets you control the action. Just keep your eye on his right arm and keep dodging under it before he attacks to survive this round. However, stay away from his blood-starved maw. He has a grab that can poison you if it doesn't outright kill you first.

Stage 2: He'll let out a short roar around 2/3 health and pick up the pace. He'll quit lumbering around the room and instead charge at you when there is any space between you. The key here is to stay behind him in order to avoid his devastating combos.

Stage 3: Around 1/3 health he'll let out another roar and start spewing Slow Poison all over the place. This is a good time to break out the Fire Paper if you have any, and then make sure that your antidotes are always ready. The BSB is relentless at this point and expect your poison meter to build very quickly. If you need to heal, remedy, or buff try to make sure that there is a pillar (or even better, two) between you and the beast.